"Hey, Murder Drone!" Uzi yelled as she gave her plot armor a major workout, stomping into the spire like she owned the place.
"Hello, Vamp-bot?" No reply.
"Tall, dark and spooky?" Nada.
"Goddammit, N!" Uzi slapped her left hand over her mouth as her last shout came out even louder than intended, echoing strangely off the corpses around her.
Her eyes darted around, looking for any sign of movement, but inside the spire even the air seemed to be still. Incredibly eerie, and made even worse by the sudden feeling of foreboding that settled over her.
"...You're behind me, aren't you?" she released a shuddering breath before gritting her teeth and stomping down her fear. "We need to ta-?" she whirled around dramatically, ready to give the big guy a piece of her mind, hopefully not literally, only to be met with empty air. Hollowed eyes darted around once more, before slowly narrowing in suspicion. She slowly looked over her shoulder and a tiny icon of a pulsing vein appeared just above her right eyebrow.
"Hi," N greeted, hands behind his back and sporting a tiny, downright adorable smile. The picture of innocence.
Despite being somewhat disturbed by just how close he was, Uzi could feel the smug rolling off of him in waves.
"We need to talk."
"We really shouldn't," N warned.
"But we are," Uzi scoffed and pointed to her notebook. "What is this?"
"I believe that's what the kids these days call a 'notebook'," N chirped.
'...Roll with it,' Uzi thought as she nodded and opened it up to a random page. "Very good. Now, what are these?"
"Diagrams. Impressively detailed ones at that!"
"Thanks. Now here's the big one: what are these?" the Worker asked, pointing to the various red marks, scribbled comments and crudely drawn additions.
"You missed some things," N answered with a shrug.
"...Why?"
"You can't figure out everything just from watching."
"You know what I mean," Uzi deadpanned. She didn't have time for coping mechanisms today.
"..."
"Why are you adding corrections and volunteering information? Why didn't you shred this thing and burn the remains? You know what this is for," Uzi jerked a thumb towards the railgun on her back, "you know what THIS is for, so...why?"
"..."
"...Have you been alive for so long that you WANT to die, but you don't want to go out like a wimp so you're looking for someone to kill you?" Uzi suddenly shifted gears, rubbing her chin in thought. "Because that's a pretty common vampire thing."
"What?! No! No, it's nothing like that!"
"All evidence points to the contrary," Uzi countered.
N opened his mouth to object, but closed it with an audible "click" when he realized that his behavior really did fit the stereotype. She didn't even know about his constant brooding, relentless depression and several metric tonnes of emotional baggage, yet she still called him out.
"I'm sensing a tone shift," Uzi muttered as she noted the murder bot's expression becoming uncomfortably serious.
"...There's gonna be more of us soon," N said. "I'm not doing my job, not meeting my quotas, and I ran my squad mates off. Even on the off chance they didn't report me, there's no way the company hasn't noticed. The moment another team finishes their mission, they'll be moved over here. They might even send a whole new team from off-world. Maybe even all of the above! Three of us did THIS, Uzi," the male drone gestured wildly to their surroundings, "imagine what six could do? Or nine? How about twelve?"
